We had a good time cooking together. Sandra came over and gave M a pie lesson (and it turned out beautifully), and she again helped us with gravy mixing when the time came.
The turkey was an odd cooking experience. We went with the 20 minutes per pound theory, but also put it in a cooking bag. After barely over 2 hours of cooking, both the pop-up thermometer and our good electronic thermometer said the bird was done... which was about an hour and a half minimum before we were expecting it to be. Figuing that something was not kosher with the thermometer, we started eyeballing it from there. We wound up taking it out about a half hour before we thought it should be done, which was a good thing, because the turkey was definitely done and was starting to get a bit dry (not bad, just starting).
I carved that up while I put in the crescent rolls, and microwaved the two green veggies in microwave steamer bags (these things work great!), and M worked on finishing the two potato dishes and got the stuffing ready. We then put everything on the table for out two guests (Sandra and our friend Jenn), and I popped the pie in to bake while we ate.
Everything was scrum-dilly-icious! Everyone ate way too much, which is the way it should be.
The one detraction to the day was the poor performance by the Lions on their annual Thanxgiving NFL game. Usually, even if they are having a bad year, they perform well-enough to make the game exciting, even if they lose. Not so, this game. It took them all of two plays to start sucking. And then it was all downhill from there, culminating in a 47-10 blow out loss. *sigh
For future turkey roasting events, using the plastic cooking bags cuts the roasting time in half, but increases the amount of yummy juices that help self-baste the turkey in said bag.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a wonderful feast of family, friends, and food.